A powerful city union that is pushing for a law that would prohibit the Big Apple’s hotels from outsourcing certain service functions is constantly outsourcing work to manage its Manhattan headquarters – including to some nonunion companies, documents show.
The Hotel Trades Council has contracted with outside companies for more than $700,000 in maintenance and cleaning services for its offices at 701-709 Eighth Avenue in Manhattan over the past decade, according to documents filed with the U.S. Department of Labor.
HTC/Local 6 Unite Here has spent more than $240,000 in 2022-2023 with a non-union cleaning company, Sterling Cleaning Services.
In addition, the company paid over $53,000 to RJR Maintenance Group, another non-union company.
In addition, the union spent millions of dollars annually on legal, consulting and computer services.
HTC/Unite Here Local 6 owns 701-707 Eighth Ave. and 709-715 Eighth Ave. through a subsidiary called Hacels, LLC.
Marcia Azeez is chief financial officer of both groups.
In 2023, the union also spent $109,296 on computer services, $83,000 on political consulting,
According to records, legal fees totaled $2,149,365 and general counsel fees totaled $702,568.
The union-backed bill for the hotel industry would stipulate that key hotel employees, such as cleaning and maintenance workers, must be employed by the company and not outsourced to external service providers.
Supporters of the measure say it could help combat sex trafficking, among other things, because hotel employees are more reliable and can more easily detect unusual and potentially illegal activities.
Hotel owners reject the measure, comparing it to a financial atomic bomb being dropped on the industry.
Critics of the bill add that the HTC seeks to deprive hotel owners and managers of the flexibility and opportunity to outsource certain services that hotel management itself uses to manage its hotels. This is blatant hypocrisy.
“The hotel union’s crusade against outsourcing is nothing but hypocritical theater,” said Charlyce Bozzello, communications director for the Center for Union Facts, a union watchdog group.
“It is outrageous that they are pushing for regulations that they themselves violate by outsourcing their own key services. Their double standards should make workers question the union’s true intentions,” Bozzello said.
Vijay Dandapani, president and CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City, said it was critical that New York hotels had the flexibility to outsource work.
“It is imperative that both union and non-union hotels hire outside workers for different purposes, both to keep costs under control and to take on tasks that union workers (in union hotels) are unwilling or unable to do,” Dandapani said in a statement.
“In union hotels, for example, deep cleaning of marble and granite floors or certain maintenance and repairs to heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems are almost always outsourced,” he said. “Non-union hotels, especially smaller ones in the outer boroughs, keep costs down in a very high operating cost environment, as New York City has the highest operating costs in the country and the highest property tax.”
The union said comparing its own outsourcing spending with that of hotels was inaccurate.
“Comparing hotels to a Midtown office building is as ridiculous as comparing apples to pianos,” HTC spokesman Austin Shafran said in a statement.
“People are not selling meth in office cubicles, and they are not sex trafficking women. Almost every office building uses outside cleaning and maintenance services because that is not the job of the office workers. But one of the main jobs of hotel employees is to clean and detect criminal activity. That’s why this legislation requires that only those hotel employees have to be directly employed by the hotel,” Shafran said.
He also said that engaging outside lawyers and political and media advisers was common practice.
“Unfortunately, engaging outside law firms and consultants is a common defense mechanism for the union against greedy hotel owners and pathetic press attacks like this,” Shafran said.
According to sources, the hotel bill is sponsored by City Councilwoman Julie Menin (D-Manhattan), who is running to become the next council speaker.
